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What is relevance in the classroom?
Relevance means connecting the content, skills, and activities students are learning to their lives, interests, goals, and experiences. When learning feels meaningful or useful to students—when they can see why it matters—they are more motivated, engaged, and willing to work through challenges.
Why is relevance in the classroom important?
Boosts Engagement: Students are more likely to focus and participate when they see a purpose in what they’re learning.
Supports Deeper Understanding: If students can connect new ideas to their own lives or prior knowledge, they retain information longer and think more critically.
Builds Motivation: Relevance taps into students' intrinsic motivation, making them want to learn, not just feel like they have to.
Affirms Student Identity: When teachers honor students' backgrounds, cultures, and interests in the curriculum, it builds trust, respect, and a stronger classroom community.
Prepares Students for the Future: Relating lessons to real-world skills and problems helps students see the value of education beyond school.
How to Put Relevance Into Practice:
In Teach Like a Champion 3.0 by Doug Lemov, he breaks relevance down into different kinds based on how teachers can connect material to students' lives. Here are the main types he describes:
Personal Relevance:
Connect the material directly to students’ own lives, interests, experiences, and identities.
Example: Linking a lesson about persuasive writing to how students might argue for something they want at home or advocate for a cause they care about.
Practical Relevance:
Show how the material will be useful in a real-world setting, in future schooling, careers, or everyday tasks.
Example: Teaching percentages by connecting it to shopping discounts or calculating tips at restaurants.
Academic or Intellectual Relevance:
Highlight how the material builds important thinking skills or connects to big academic ideas that are worth knowing in and of themselves.
Example: Showing students how understanding the causes of historical events can help them better understand the world today.
Cultural Relevance:
Integrate students’ cultures, histories, and backgrounds into the curriculum, making sure students see themselves reflected in what they learn.
Example: Using literature, examples, or history that align with students' cultural backgrounds.
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